I do not own Naruto. If I did, then maybe this story would be better lol.
Chapter 11: It's a C-rank what can go wrong?
It was a hot day in konoha, a burning 'You'll die if you go outside' day. The usually warm, but not overly so leaf village was being terrorised by an unexpected heat wave which promoted all living beings to retreat under the shade of the various buildings and the trees of all sizes which decorated the village with their bright green leaves.
The only ones going outside In the burning heat was the shinobi who had a duty to uphold. Like the genin team called Team 7, they were waiting in the shadow of one of the giant gates leaving the shinobi village. They were waiting for the teacher of the team, Hatake Kakashi who was two hours late for the mission departure.
"Mission...! Mission...! Misssssion...! Miiission...!" Naruto ranted happily, having finally gotten his wish for a C-rank fulfilled. It wasn't exactly the grand mission he had expected (saving princesses, fighting bad guys or helping with overthrowing a corrupt governor.) But it was definitely better than painting a fence. He also got to go outside the village, which was a giant plus on his side.
"He's late again," Sasuke commented dryly as he looked up from the burning orange colored book about Taijutsu he was reading - or studying, as the dark haired boy would say. "I would have thought he'd be on time for something like this." The boy shrugged as he rolled his eyes. Sasuke's amusement at the situation stood out clearly among the annoyed emotions Sakura-chan and the client released.
The client was a middle aged man with a strong and handsome jaw, he looked muscular but not overly so. The man had pitch black hair pulled back into a short ponytail reaching to his shoulders. His hazel brown eyes was narrowed as he stared moodily into the village. His most notable feature was probably the long and wide scar running from his temple to the bottom of his ear. It looked vaguely like a wolf.
"Of course he's late," Sakura snarled, stomping her foot into the ground as she whipped around. Her hair which was now put up into a ponytail slammed into her face, leaving a slightly red mark, making her look more irritated than she already was. "We should sue him for it!"
"At least we got a misssssion," Naruto said, ever the optimist as he dragged out the word 'mission.' "I can take some waiting for this, I already spend so long waiting, a little more time isn't going to hurt."
"I just hope we won't run into any shinobi." Sakura-chan said lowly as she fiddled with the second water bottle she had just unsealed to drink off. She had already used up one bottle while they waited and Naruto wondered how many bottles she had sealed in one of the storage scrolls he had given her after learning how to make them.
"Don't worry Sakura-chan! We'll just beat them up if anyone dares to attack our team."
"Besides," The bastard said as he looked up from his book again. "It's a C-rank what can go wrong? And the risk of meeting enemy shinobi is only at two percent."
"It's actually at 25% because some clients decide to withhold information so that they don't have to pay for a B-rank." Sakura replied with a small shiver.
"Really?" Naruto interrupted, getting excited. "I can't wait!"
"You're contradicting yourself." Sasuke remarked as he raised an eyebrow at the blonde.
Naruto sighed with a shrug. "It's a figure of speech, but I didn't expect you to understand it."
"Ha ha," Sasuke replied dryly as he rolled his eyes. "Very clever."
"It's so hot." Sakura breathed as she emptied the water bottle with a sigh.
"I agree, I am hot." Sasuke replied cheerfully as he caught Sakura's empty bottle and sealed it in a scroll.
The pink haired girl turned beat red as the blood in her veins rushed to her face. "Wh-wha-wha?" She stuttered, shielding her beautiful eyes with her hands in embarrassment.
"Sorry I couldn't help myself," Sasuke laughed as he scratched his neck. "I had to do it."
"Your ego is burning with disappointment."Naruto told him with a smirk. "maybe you should splash some water on it, that would cool you down."
"bleh," Sasuke replied with a grin. he frowned when the client began walking up to them, trying to ignore the man. "Waiting sounds so boring, don't you have a card game or something in one of those scrolls of yours?"
Naruto smirked when the old client stopped by them and raised his hand slightly to ask Sasuke something. "No." The blonde said and turned away before Sasuke could reply, trapping the Uchiha with the bored and curious client.
Naruto dragged sakura with him as he began moving away from them when the client began to talk. Sasuke's eyes widened comically as he nodded at whatever question the man asked.
Sakura laughed softly besides Naruto as their dark haired teammate almost creeped into himself in an attempt to get away from the client whom the boy had said was 'creepy.'
Naruto didn't get what was so creepy about the man, he seemed like a fine enough guy, honest, kind and nice company even if he seemed a bit shy.
Sakura moaned besides him, taking another swing at her drink as she began lowering herself to the dry another and dusty ground. She would never had done that a few weeks ago and Naruto felt in awe of her progress. She had moved so far in the little time Kakashi-sensei had trained with them, while Sasuke and Naruto took a step forward, Sakura jumped.
She became better at everything at an alarming pace. Her taijutsu skipped ahead with a vengeance when she began 'fattening up' as Sasuke remarked and all the other shinobi subjects seemed to come just as easily to her.
Naruto needed to pull himself together or Sakura would be the one to become Hokage, or worse Sasuke would become Hokage before he even had the chance to be considered for the position. Naruto shuddered just by thinking about his dark haired friend becoming the Hokage, Konoha would probably burn to the ground in two days flat. Not that Sasuke ever wanted to become Hokage, the boy dodged responsibility like it was the Chakra poisoning and would probably stab himself in his stomach before having to take any kind. He had also said that it would be a thousand times better for the village if Naruto became hokage. Naruto was happy to have Sasuke's and Sakura's support for his becoming hokage.
"Good morning team!" A bored voice said, announcing Kakashi-sensei's presence to them all and Sasuke jumped in relief and delight.
"Kakashi-sensei!" The Uchiha said excitedly, happy for the distraction so that he could get away from the creepy man. The boy ran over and hugged himself to the Jounins leg, sending a warning hiss in Naruto's direction. "You finally came! I missed you so much!"
"Now now, there's no need for fighting, there's enough of me for everyone." Kakashi-sensei drawled lazily, his eye smiling happily, going along with Sasuke's odd behaviour without even a blink as he patted the boy on his head.
"Purring purring purring..." Sasuke whispered as he squeezed Kakashi-sensei an extra time, fighting back a smile. The masked man made a scooting gesture towards Naruto and Sakura as he cooed slightly. The dark haired teen looked up at Kakashi again before stepping quietly away from the Jounin to stand by his two teammates in a neat line.
Kakashi-sensei ignored the occurrence that just happened between himself and Sasuke as he turned to the client. "Kazuki-san, I apologise for being late but it would seem that I got lost trying to find my way here." Kakashi said with sincerity as Naruto nodded obediently with his teammates and the black haired man just stared at the whole team like they just told him that they loved to run around naked.
"I should have requested another team..." Kazuki muttered as he rolled his eyes, bristling in annoyance as he ran his fingers along the scar on his face. "Let's just go so I won't be later than I'm already are because of your tardiness."
"Alright team," Kakashi said as he turned to the three 12 year olds and Naruto's back stood a little straighter at his sensei's commanding voice. "Do you have everything we talked about prepared?"
"Yes, we went over it while you were... lost. Scrolls, kunai, shuriken, earpieces, tags..." Sakura-chan said dully. "like we always do."
"That's great!" The silver haired man said, clasping his hands together as he ignored the jab at his personality. "Let's move out then!"
Oh my God... Sasuke thought in dismay as he took a long sip of the the cool water. It's so fucking hot. The sun was killing him, he never really had a good time with loads of sun and it would seem like stuff like that carried over in lives. It was horrible, the heat was disgusting. He just wanted to be home in his nice, comfy and most importantly cool house.
Sasuke stuck his tongue out in disgust as he moved his blue soaked and sticky tank top away from his chest in disgust. He didn't even know what was the water he had held out over himself or what was the sweat from being in the annoying sun too long. Sasuke let the shirt go and it stuck itself to his body as Sakura took another long drink of her bottle.
"You know you're going to have to pee constantly with all that water you're putting in your body, right?" Sasuke asked her slowly. "And it's only making you sweat more."
She turned to him with narrowed eyes. "That's only a myth. It was never proven that drinking a lot of water makes you sweat more."
"I don't get you two." Naruto said inserting his own thoughts into the conversation as he tilted his head in that cute foxy way.
Sasuke frowned, looking the orange clad boy up and down. He was dressed in that thick orange and blue jumper he always wore, not really noticing the burning heat. "I say we ignore the heat freak." He said, completely dismissing Naruto.
"I agree." Sakura said and turned to him, mock whispering some random words in his ear as she made sure to look pointedly at Naruto's clothes.
"Yeah totally." He whispered back, pretending that she had even said anything he could understand and grinned at the blonde boy who began looking annoyed.
Naruto huffed and made a show of turning to Kakashi-sensei so that he could talk to him instead. The man also looked bothered by the weather, but had chosen to just use a slightly shorter shirt and remove his gloves in an attempt to cool himself. The man looked back at Naruto for a long moment with a narrowed eye before walking past the blonde over to Sakura and Sasuke, ignoring the boy.
"Come on!" Naruto exclaimed like a dragon as he looked back at them and threw his hands up into the air. The boy muttered something under his breath as he turned to the client who was looking curiously between team 7's members. "Why did you even go to konoha in the first place?" He asked, trying to stir up a conversation now that his teammates had abandoned him.
"Oh," the man said, focusing his gaze back on the blonde. He smiled slightly. "I had some business in konoha but was mugged on my way there so I thought it would safest to hire some genin to protect me."
"Makes sense," Naruto said slowly as the man returned to his own thoughts. "What did you think about the village?"
Kazuki huffed, rolling his eyes at the boy's question. "It was fine." He said shortly, slowing his pace slightly so that he was walking besides Sakura, Kakashi and Sasuke.
Naruto looked dissatisfied with the man's response as he sulked quietly. Naruto kicked at a Small pebble, making it jump along the ground. Sasuke grinned and skipped over to his teammate, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Want to play a game?" He asked with a smile, that was enough teasing for today. Naruto nodded with a smile, sensing Sasuke's intent with his freaky inbuilt lie detector. "It's called I spy."
Naruto raised an eyebrow at Sasuke, looking absolutely unimpressed. "Really?" He asked monotonous. "I spy? Can you be more creative?"
"Well," Sasuke said with a grin as he poked a finger at Naruto's eye. The blonde tilted his head to the side and Sasuke's finger hit air. "We could always play 'who can poke the other's eye out first so that we can look like sensei.'"
"I vote for I spy." Sakura said as she joined them.
Naruto looked at her for a moment. "Is spy something beautiful." He said and blushed, the crimson color covering his whole face.
"Sasuke?" The darker haired boy of the two said innocently as he tilted his head, grinning at the way Naruto's blush turned into an enraged sputtering.
"No! Sakura-chan!"
"Awww," Sasuke cooed, slinging an arm around his teammates. "Don't worry. I'm still the second most beautiful here then."
Sakura rolled her eyes, having learned to just ignore her teammate when he did weird things without any context. Naruto gagged as he escaped Sasuke's arm. "Ew. Beautiful? More like grotesque."
"Wow." Sakura suddenly said as she blinked owlishly at her shorter teammate.
Sasuke and Naruto frowned. "What?" They asked in confusion.
"You just said grotesque."
"So?"
Sasuke froze as he connected to dots, realizing what exactly Sakura thought was so amazing and began laughing uncontrollably. "Oh God!"
"I'm not stupid!" Naruto snapped in exasperation when he caught her meaning like a cat catching its prey.
"Sorry Naruto," Sakura winced. "I'm just not all that used to you..." She trailed off, not really being able to find the right word.
Naruto twitched. "I get it, I don't think I would if it wasn't for-"
"Ambush," Kakashi-sensei whispered harshly as he appeared among them with the client in a puff of smoke - scaring the shit out of them while he was at it. The genin tensed in a flash and looked around the area. "Three people. It's further up ahead, there's always the chance that it's not us they're after. But stay alert and don't panic."
Naruto swallowed and looked over at the client whose eyes darted around nervously, looking at all the plants around them like they would suddenly attack him.
"Alright," Sasuke said as he nodded tensely. Sasuke looked over at Sakura who was frozen to the spot, her teeth grinding together. "What formation do we take?"
Kakashi looked at them and sighed loudly, his eyes suddenly looking ten years older. "Naruto in the back with Sakura, Sasuke and Kazuki-san in the middle and I'll be taking front."
"Formation B..." Naruto muttered to himself. That meant that Sasuke was on as a medical ninja and occasional weapon support. But no using chakra, he had to save up for the chance that they needed healing.
"Alright let's move out." Kakashi-sensei said and turned away from them. He began sauntering ahead and they followed quietly after. The man paused in his walking and looked back to where Sakura was standing rooted to the ground, not moving an inch.
"Sakura," Kakashi gently said and she looked up. Naruto winced besides Sasuke, massaging his temples. "Relax, I don't let my comrades die. I'll protect you if necessary." Kakashi-sensei's eye arched into that shape he used to siginfy a smile.
Sakura took a slightly shaky step, followed by a few more and walked up to Naruto, nodding once to show that she was ready. Kakashi looked at them before continuing on down the path, the team falling into formation behind him.
Kakashi made a signal with his hand after they had walked for a while. Ambush. Sasuke forced himself to relax as he sent the message on to Naruto and Sakura with a different gesture.
Sasuke looked up at the man - Kazuki - resisting the urge to look behind him- with narrowed eyes. There was always the chance that he had lied about the dangers in the mission. But Naruto would have sensed it if he was lying. Unless the man already knew about the ambush before hand-
Sasuke's Sharingan flared to life - his sudden suspicions confirmed - when the client's foot suddenly flashed out. Sasuke twisted his body backward, placing his hands on the ground and sent a kick flying up to the man's jaw. Kazuki jumped back in a graceful movement, avoiding the kick by a meter.
Sasuke flashed his eyes over to his teammates for a brief second -not daring to look away from his opponent for a longer time than that-, blessing the fact that he only needed one second with the Sharingan to get a good look at their situation. They were frozen, standing completely still in surprise, not expecting the client to be in on the ambush.
Damit...
The Uchiha sprung back up to his feet, locking eyes with Kazuki before looking over at Kakashi-sensei for a second.
He was fighting two people. The silver haired man was fighting against a woman with bright sun yellow hair dressed in a purple suspender jumper, revealing her bare back to the world. The second person he was fighting was a man with long white hair tied into a ponytail, he had casual clothes, blue shorts and a white t-shirt with a katana strapped to his waist. That meant that there was one left, excluding the client. Sasuke looked around, keeping Kazuki in his vision at all times as he served for anything that would reveal the last person's location.
The man Sasuke was facing waved at Sasuke with a cheerful face and then he disappeared with a little pop.
Sasuke jumped slightly in surprise and looked around in confusion. What kind of jutsu does that kind of bs?
He froze when he finally spotted the last person. He was a big man with balding brown hair, he was dressed like the other male from the ambush, casual clothes. A pair of black pants and a grey shirt. He had a sword as well. Sasuke mentally dubbed him Baldy.
The man was going after Sasuke's teammates.
Baldy wasn't very fast.
Sakura unfroze and grabbed a kunai in each of her hands, moving in front of naruto with a quick movement, entering a frozen battle position. She whispered something with sounded suspiciously like a quote from the shinobi rules.
Sasuke began preparing his chakra to activate the body flicker.
He winced in frustration, bordering on throwing a tampture tantrum when he accidentally grabbed at the useless black chakra in his hurried panic. The man unsheathed his sword, its blade gleaming in the sun as he held it above him when he closed in on the two shortest members of team 7. Sakura screamed, covering her head as she made herself smaller by bending down to the ground - her bravery peeling away at the threat of death. The man prepared to slash down on the girl when Sasuke finally got a hold on the right type of chakra from his system.
Activating the Body Flicker, Sasuke ran towards his teammates as fast as his body enhanced by his chakra could carry him. He pulled out a few knives from his back pouch before he skidded underneath the man's wide attacking stance. The jutsu ended and Sasuke appeared lying with his back on the ground underneath the man who was about to cut into Sakura's hastily crossed arms with a puff of white chakra smoke. Baldy looked down at Sasuke, who made a menacing picture with his glaring red eyes. The man's green eyes - which reminded Sasuke too much of Rukia for his own comfort- widened in fear, realizing what was about to happen but too slow to do anything.
Pulling chakra into the knives, Sasuke didn't waste any time. Having decided to deal with the mental breakdown he would probably have because of his actions later.
Sasuke wasn't unfamiliar with death, people died in operations all the time, even if Rukia shielded him from the worst procedures. Like that one man who had his gut ripped open, he didn't survive and Rukia had refused to let Sasuke anywhere near the man. Not that Sasuke really wanted to fix up a gory mess like that. He had seen plenty of people die, on others operations table and sometimes on his own. But Sasuke had never lost anyone from his own mistakes, those he lost were usually a lost cause the moment they got on the table. He might have required a bit of therapy after his first loss, that was a boring talk. He had just never consciously taken or even tried to do it.
Sasuke aimed in a part of a second and threw the knives with all his might. The boy gritted his teeth, hoping that the man was slow enough not to be able to dodge the knives in time.
He wasn't.
The man made a "gurk!" sound when the first knife reached him. It penetrated the man right in his jaw with a squishy sound and was followed by a knife that went into his throat - killing the man instantly. Blood dripped down the handle of the knife stuck in the man's head, dropping a few drops of the thick reddish liquid on Sasuke's face.
Some of it even hit his eye, making him hiss in pain. Blinding him on the right side.
Sasuke's eye - which wasn't screaming in agony - grew huge in horror when the man suddenly slumped, his sword slipping out of the man's hands in slow motion. Sasuke's brain paused for a part of a second when the reality of the situation dawned on him, the man was going to fall down on him! Sasuke scrambled, trying to get away, but was too slow as the man's heavy body fell down on him, crushing Sasuke underneath his superior weight.
Sasuke looked up, his breathing already beginning to become strained as he pulled his chakra into his torso so that it would survive the pressure easier. He glanced over at Kakashi-sensei who was engaging the three other enemies in combat, dodging around them like a professional dancer among amateurs. They hadn't noticed the leaving of their comrade.
Lucky me.
Sasuke pushed against the man, his arms not really making the man's large body move an inch. His nose wrinkled in disgust when he felt blood soak into his shirt.
"So, anyone gonna help me?" Sasuke wheezed when sakura dropped her kunai, the blades sinking into the ground with a sink.
Sakura blinked at the body. Then at Sasuke. Then at the body again. She slapped a hand over her mouth, holding back a sob as tears began flowing down her cheeks.
"Please?" Sasuke whispered urgently.
She lost her balance, tilting back down on her rear, her legs not allowing her to be above the ground anymore. "A shi-shinobi must not show his t-te-tears." She stuttered, her shaking arms pushing herself up so she could crawl over to Sasuke. The pink haired girl shook, trying to find a blood free spot and pushed against the man with her shaking hands when she finally found one.
"One, Two..." She began, putting on a brave face as she signaled to Sasuke when to push.
"Three." Sasuke pushed, using all his admittedly limited strength to help Sakura push Baldy's body of himself. The large form was pushed of Sasuke and he could finally breathe a sigh of relief, air returning to his lungs when Baldy finally got removed.
"Ugh," Sasuke winced, trying to rub the blood out of his eye in vain. "That's unpleasant."
"...Naruto?" Sakura asked, waving a hand in front of Naruto's panicking pale face. "...You there?" She asked hesitantly.
"I think he's panicking." Sasuke told her, curiously waving his own hand in front of the boy's face.
Naruto growled, slapping Sasuke's hand away. "Like hell I am, I was just..." he trailed off, clenching his jaw, his teeth gritting together. "What happened to your eye?" He finally asked.
"Red flowing pain happened."
"Sounds painful."
"No shit." Sasuke deadpaned.
"Guys..." Sakura suddenly whispered urgently, her eyes growing wide as she froze on on the spot. Sasuke turned, his blood turning to ice as he cursed his damned bad luck.
"Clones." He choked quickly, a lump getting caught in the back of his throat. Naruto glanced at Sasuke, crossing his hands in a quick movement as he created a few shadow clones which popped fourth from puffs of white smoke. The clones began moving into position around them.
Kakashi-sensei was down. Defeated by the enemies.
So much for protecting us with his life...
The woman with the blonde hair was busy dragging Kakashi-sensei's unconscious body over to a thick tree, rope slung over her shoulder. The fake client was looking over at them with a curious look in his eyes, not seeming to care about the death of Baldy while the white haired looked at them with a murderous expressions, the rage clear in his expression. The man wasn't paying them much attention, constantly shifting his attention to the body at their their feet.
Sakura swallowed when the client leaned over the rage filled man's shoulder, whispering something in his ears. The man seemed to calm a bit down, but kept his eyes trained on their forms, his eyes narrowing at Sasuke's bloodied form. Sasuke suddenly felt self conscious.
"What do we do?" Naruto asked.
"We do our best?" Sakura squeaked out, her voice making a slight crack.
"There's nothing else we can do," Sasuke agreed as he swept a bit of blood from his face, only managing the smear the red liquid all over his hands. "We need to be on our best game here, don't worry about dying, cut we're going to die anyway if we don't do anything."
"What's our plan?" Naruto asked when Sakura took a step back, standing behind Sasuke.
"It looks like they're waiting for some reason, so let's take this opportunity to do formation T." She said before jumping back.
"Yes sir." Sasuke replied, saluting shortly as he moved to the side.
Naruto crossed his hands again, creating a horde of clones while obscuring the area with the smoke. The white chakra waste disappeared in a few seconds to reveal that Sakura was nowhere in sight. The white haired man finished listening to whatever Kazuki had to say, stepping towards the clones as he slowly drew his katana. The fake client winked at the team as he sat down on the dry ground, crossing his legs.
"Mizi! Remember that we need their chests breathing with life! We're letting you do this, so that means no killing those little life killers!" The woman called out as she strapped something around Kakashi-sensei's neck.
Alive? They needed them us? That meant that the threat of death just disappeared into the air but it created the question of why Gato, the owner of the biggest shipping company in this world would needed them for. But no time like later! Sasuke thought frantically when the man Mizi finally sprung into action, his sword cutting into several unfortunate clones which couldn't get out of the way quickly enough.
A small genjutsu with Sakura's distinct signature washed over them, concealing the pink haired girl's location inside the forest a little bit. It was the demonic surroundings jutsu.
"Did you get that?" Sasuke whispered, tapping his earpiece as he watched several of Naruto's clones go down in miserable and pathetic deaths. "And Naruto? We need to do something about that taijutsu of yours, this is pathetic to watch."
-Yes,- Sakura's voice said in his ear. -I need some more cover.-
-Don't forget me.- Naruto whispered harshly into Sasuke's ear, no doubt annoyed by Sasuke's comment as he took a small break from creating clones.
"Two orders of covers coming up!" Sasuke replied, glancing briefly in Sakura's direction before switching himself with one of Naruto's clones. He appeared in a puff of chakra in front the mobbed man, just outside the range of his sword. Their eyes met for a few seconds before the man growled, swinging his sword at Sasuke who wasn't quick enough to switch back. "Cover delivered!" He announced cheerfully into his microphone, placing a hand with a medical jutsu on the swallow cut on his right arm. Healing it in a few seconds.
-You alright?- Sakura asked.
"Sure, it was just a small cut," Sasuke dismissed. "Nothing special. "
-You got hit!?- Naruto whispered urgently, drawing back away from the man, forming a string of hand seals. -listen! I think they use poisons, that's the only way Kakashi-sensei would go down that quickly!-
"Let's just continue as planned." Sasuke muttered, hiding among the many clones the man was continuing to mercilessly cut down. He made a gesture with his hands and the clones around him made a wide berth from Sasuke to Whitey. Changing the genjutsu with a quick glance, Sasuke made the man stand still, the everlasting battle against the clones continuing inside his head as the man wished.
-I have a clear shot.- Sakura said.
"Right-to," Sasuke replied, running his hands clumsily through the seals needed for his fire jutsu. Breathing in, sasuke spit out a giant fireball towards the man as the 'twang' of an arrow being released went into his ear through his com.
The arrow coated in as much water chakra Sakura could control, tore through the air a second later. The arrow was just barely visible to Sasuke's sharingan as it entered the fireball, aimed for the white haired man's thigh.
But it never hit as the fire from sasuke's jutsu suddenly disappeared and the arrow was grabbed out of the air by mister fake client who appeared with with a small pop among the many clones with the blonde lady. The orange clad clones blinked at the man, not really believing what the man had just done. "I would prefer if you didn't kill my subordinates." He said and disappeared with a pop again, leaving the woman behind.
"What is this? Freaking Harry Potter!?" Sasuke moaned in annoyance.
The blonde turned to the sword wielding man, slapping him in the face, hard. "Mizi! You idiot! You're in a genjutsu!"
"-Whaa?" Whitey answered, looking around. His eyes widened when he no doubt noticed the difference in his surroundings. "When did that happen?" The man asked, not at all concerned about his near death experience. "Oops?"
Naruto's clones didn't let the two finish speaking, attacking the two with all their combined might. The woman laughed, jumping over a clone by smashing its face into the dirt. "This is just like that wet job in rain!" She grinned, punching a clone in the face.
"Except it was water jutsus and not kids." The man returned.
-I'm firing.- Sakura said in his ear and an arrow flew at the two, only to be stopped again when the woman just snatched it out of the air. The blonde woman looked at the arrow, snapping it on the middle with a small twist of her hands. Sakura gave an inhuman scream of rage and frustration.
-How about we all attack?- Naruto asked with absolute giddiness lancing his voice.
Sasuke blinked, cold sweat running down his back, instantly recognizing Naruto's tone.
Then he got the hell out of there using the body flicker as clones began retreating.
Sakura growled in agreement and a giant explosion went off the next second, filling the area with a fiery chaos when Naruto's clones began to use their explosive tags.
-That's what I call a hot end.- Naruto whispered with glee.
"Those kids are pissing me off, I'm done playing." A dark voice said when the cloud of fire disappeared and a cube of earth crumbled down, revealing the two adults without a single scratch on them.
A weird feeling suddenly gripped at Sasuke's heart, and he felt it hammering inside his chest. Sasuke clutched at his heart the unsettling feeling taking his breath away. He closed the eye not filled with another person's blood, leaning against the tree he was using as cover.
Then it stopped. Disappearing after what felt like a hour and Sasuke peered out from behind the tree, realizing what exactly the pressure was.
Killing intent, very strong killing intent. Not at all like the one Hinata had when Sasuke did something the crazy girl didn't like.
And he thought that was an uncomfortable feeling.
-What- what was that?- Sakura's slightly static and panting voice asked fearfully.
"killing intent," Sasuke answered as he stepped out from behind the tree. He continued talking when he heard her take a shaky breath. "Naruto's down."
-What how!?- she screeched loudly.
"Couldn't take the mood!" Sasuke replied cheerfully, trying to lighten the mood just a little bit as he body flickered over to Naruto's unconscious form. He checked the boy's pulse, just to be safe and scooped him up into his arms, dodging a cube of earth rising out of the ground to slap Sasuke in the face while he was at it.
They were so freaking screwed.
-Seriously? Now of all times!?- Sakura screeched as Sasuke threw Naruto - with a mental apology of course- at a bush, but not before stealing-borrowing some random seals from the boy's pouch. He didn't reach the bush because Sasuke couldn't throw him that far so he ended up smashing into the grass besides the road.
"Sorry!" He whispered at the unconscious boy.
"Yup!" Sasuke replied to Sakura, twirling around another giant piece of earth rising from the ground. Only to come face to face with the blonde woman's night blue eyes.
Nope!
-Damit!- Sakura growled and Sasuke couldn't help but laugh that ripped its way out of him as he stared into the woman's eyes for a second before body flickering away.
Sasuke took a good look around the area, noticing that Whitey was gone. Lady blonde locked eyes with him and Sasuke didn't even bother to try and put her in a genjutsu. "I agree with your assessment!"
Sakura snarled in his ear. -Sasuke! Stop being so fucking happy!-
"Kinda trying to cope with our future defeat here!" He cheered throwing a few knives at the woman when she sprinted forwards, her hands positioned to punch him. Shit shit shit.
-Like hell we're giving up! We continue until we're down to the last man!-
Sasuke did a double take, pausing as his brain caught up to what his teammate just said and he received a fist to his stomach as a reward. Rolling on the ground, sasuke gasped. "Did you- did you just quote the shinobi rules." He asked when an arrow flew at the woman, stopping her from continuing her attack while Sasuke recovered from the hit.
-You alright?-
"I am now, thanks," Sasuke replied, tieing a mystery seal around one of his knives. He jumped up onto one of the many cubes of earth, throwing the knives at the woman. "You know what we need? A sniper rifle, I can totally see you being badass with one."
-We don't have time for your- - Sakura's voice suddenly cut off, followed by the sound of metal sinking into wood -the other one is here! -
"What? Are you alright?" He asked, jumping away when the woman threw kunai at him, dodging his knives which exploded in lighting. One of the woman's kunai gazed his arm, drawing a bit of blood.
Sasuke was seriously beginning to get tired.
-I. Don't. Have. Time for. Talking.- Sakura grunted and the line went dead.
Placering his hand on the cut, sasuke began healing it when the woman just stopped moving as if she was waiting for something to happen. "What do you say about letting us go?" He asked hopefully.
She scowled. "Do you really think I would let you go after what you kids made Senri go?"
"Well," Sasuke replied with a shrug. "You can always try."
"Sooooo... what are we waiting for?" Sasuke asked when she continued to stand still, observing him with narrowed eyes.
"How come the poison didn't work on you?" She mused as she rubbed her chin in thought. Sasuke blinked in confusion, what poison?
"No matter," She whispered, a smile appearing on her face as she made a few hand seals Sasuke's eye couldn't follow. She grinned and something hard slammed into Sasuke from behind, knocking him down to the ground.
Should have expected that. Sasuke grunted mentally, resisting the urge to slap himself. That wouldn't help in this station.
The Uchiha rolled away, glancing behind him at the large amount of rock which had been raised from the ground to knock him over. Sasuke grunted, activating the body flicker jutsu when another slap of earth rose from the ground at a blinding speed. It began tipping over, falling towards Sasuke. He used the enchanted speed to quickly run away from the giant block of earth and stopped it behind the woman. He mentally cursed his chakra control which wasn't back up to his previous level as he made the three hand seals as swiftly as he could. Sasuke activated the jutsu at the last second when the blonde woman's arm flashed into his sight and the praylizasition jutsu did it's work when she froze, her fist a hair breadth away from his face.
Sasuke bolted away as fast as his strong legs could carry him as he pulled out a few knives, he stopped, throwing the knives with pinpoint accuracy. The woman twitched and Too late, ran through Sasuke's mind as she slipped down to the ground like some kind of snake and the knives sailed peacefully over her body. She flipped up to her feet, throwing her hands towards him like she threw something and small pieces of rock flew from her hands at an acceleration Sasuke's eye couldn't follow. The rocks hit Sasuke square in the chest, throwing him back onto the ground.
Sasuke gasped, rolling around onto his back as he bit back a growl. His eye grew big when the woman appeared in his sight smiling happily. "This is for Senri." She growled, the smile bleeding away for menacing eyes.
Shit! No no no no no no! Sasuke screamed in his head, trying to force his exhausted body to move. Then the woman reared back her leg and kicked against his head, throwing his panicked mind into unconsciousness.
Mister Shadow had been strangely silent the whole day.
Mai glanced down at the unconscious boy as blood slowly seeped out of the wound on his head from where she had kicked him in her admittedly uncharacteristic rage. But that little shit had killed Senri, she didn't even want to touch him. She couldn't help it at the thought of her life long friend and tears began blurring her vision.
"I did not imagine that any of the genin would have the ability to resist my poison," Kazuki told her as he walked over to them, checking the boy's pulse to confirm that the dark haired boy was still alive after her kick. "Very curious." He muttered, pulling the boy up into his arms.
"We got the last branch of money makers, where's our money?" She snapped at Kazuki as he put the boy down besides his unconscious teacher.
"You'll get it once Gato receives them safely. Not before, that was our contact. I don't care that one of you died, that just means he wasn't good enough," The dark haired male said unsympathetically as he strapped the chakra blocker on the boy's wrist. "Go get the blonde boy."
Mai growled, but didn't dare oppose the man, Kazuki had an amazingly scary ability which she never wanted to be the opponent of. She crouched by the genin and tilted his head out of the dirt, sweeping the ground from his little toned face. I was right! He is cute, look at those adorable whiskers!
She smiled as she took the boy into her arms, taking him over to his teammates where Kazuki put a chakra blocker on him.
"Hey Mai! Think you can take this load from me?" Mizi's voice said behind her. She turned around to her other, and very much alive lifelong friend and stilled at the arrow running through his left leg. He was holding the last genin, a girl with bright pink hair.
Running over to him, Mai began bombarding him with questions as she took the girl into her arms. "What happened? Are you okay? Do you need anything? Does it hurt? How did you even get hit? Do we need a medic?"
"Mai," he replied, as she supported his weight, walking slowly. "Not right now."
"Sorry, I just don't- I don't want to lose you too." Mai replied, choking up.
"Senri would want us to continue with our dream, right?"
Mai let a small smile tug at her lips. "Yeah, he would," she grinned. "I guess we can say you got an arrow to the knee."
Mizi snorted in pained amusement.
"What happened to you?" Kazuki asked, unconcerned by the arrow pierced into Mizi's leg as he gestured to the ground for them to drop off the girl besides her teammates.
"She wanted to take some of me down with her," Mizi grinned despite the pain he must have been in when she dumped the girl. "Shot me right in the leg before passing out from the poison."
Mizi looked over at the dark haired boy. "Is that the one?"
"Yeah, he threw around knives that matched the ones in your friend's body." Kazuki told the white haired man bluntly.
Mizi gave gave a dark scowl, unsheathing his sword just just a fraction as he hobbled over to the boy.
Quickly putting her hand on Mizi hand so that he couldn't draw the sword, Mai shook her head slowly. "We're not murderers like them, besides. He's going a worse place than death."
"That kid is also worth quite a bit!" Kazuki exclaimed from where he was leaning casually against the tree. "Medical ninjutsu, Sharingan, elemental jutsu, knives and body flicker. The whole package! My master is going to be pleased when I a complicated my mission early!" The scared man laughed to himself, looking over the captured genin and their teacher.
"Come on Mizi," Mai commanded softly, shaking a bit when her eye began to sting from her tears. "Let's go give Senri the proper respect he deserves."
Everything was strange, the spinning light, the blurred dark colors which melted into green. The hard stone under her scraped painfully against her knees as she grasped at the green grass with her hands, trying to get in touch with reality.
Something was wrong, she didn't know any of this, it was completely foreign. Like she had been pushed to another plain of existence. She frowned in confusion when a hand meet her arm, pulling her up her delirious self, even though she was still holding the grass in a crushing grip. She screamed and trashed when another hand joined the other as it pulled her unmoving form up from the cold ground. The green and dark shapes gave way to a blinding blue light and she blew a bit of grass out of her face as she shut her eyes tightly again. She blinked, white spots of many sizes clearing up in her vision as she stared at the blue sky which was slightly hidden by the crown of a giant tree.
"Sakura? Wh-" She whispered hoarsely as her voice broke before she could finish and gripped at the grass again, her fingers sucking in the unfamiliar feeling. She looked to the side and her head followed almost automatically as she willed it to moved. She glanced up the large tree which had a few kunai stuck in random places.
Her hands moved up above her head when she looked up again, moving with her thoughts, she didn't even have to think about it for them to move. She poked the hand and giggled at the unfamiliar feeling of skin on skin contact. She moved her hands to the mass of hair on her head and roamed them around, it was like the grass, just softer and slightly more greasy. She pulled her hands back, holding the hair tightly in her grip as she wondered at the pink strands tangled between her fingers. She tugged at the hair a bit too much and released it in surprise when pain erupted from her scalp.
"I can feel pain..." She whispered in a daze as her body did what she wanted and she sat up. She felt the way her muscles moved at the movement and looked down her legs at the red blue sandals and wiggled her toes - Well tried to, since they just moved a bit.
She leaned forwards, pulling herself over the outstretched legs and pulled them under her, rising to her feet in a swift movement that left her swaying a bit from dizziness. She fumbled with her legs and began marching stiffly over to the brighter area to her left. Pushing some leaves away from her path she was greeted by the sight of a pretty wide path. She blinked recognizing the knives lying scattered around a pool of blood, they were Sasuke-kun's. This path was where they had been ambushed and where were Sasuke-kun had kil- had. She choked, not really believing what had happened.
She bend down by the puddle and took the handle of a clean knife into her hand and looked at the clean blade as she stood up again. She clenched her jaw but stopped at the odd feeling as she glanced down the long and empty road.
She was out. But how? And where were Sakura?
What's g-ing on? A muffled voice asked in her mind. -forest?
Next Chapter: Captured
Bonus: Kurenai.
Kurenai had known about Hinata's training with the last Uchiha since they started sparring together on a regular basis. But she never really saw a change in the soft spoken girl, except for her grades improving gradually over time until she stole the position of rookie of the year from the Yamanaka girl. Nothing had changed in Hinata's life at home, her father still forced the girl to fight her younger sister and Hinata continued the refuse the man.
She never got the chance to watch the two children spar because of the ANBU constantly watching the Uchiha district wouldn't allow her to go in without being invited by the Uchiha heir himself. So Kurenai watched Hinata's progress from a roof when her academy class had practice. She had also meet the shinobi in charge of Uchiha Sasuke who was checking on her student, while analysing a particular spar where Hinata was dodging around Kiba Inuzuka's attacks like the boy was an amuture. Hinata had come so far since forming a friendship with the boy, it was good that she finally made some friends.
It also seemed like the only person she would to go all out against in the academy spars was her dark haired friend. It had become a competition of sorts between herself and Marion Rukia and herself to see which child were the stronger one.
Hinata won of course.
Kurenai had meet the boy a few times too after Hinata felt brave enough to introduce him to her. Kurenai already knew about their friendship, but it was nice to be formally introduced to Uchiha Sasuke. The boy was a bit odd, but he was good for Hinata so Kurenai would overlook the dark haired boy's more eccentric personality traits.
The boy saying that her eyes were amazingly stunning had nothing to do with it.
Kurenai had a good grasp of the Hyuuga girl's process after a few months. She was faster, stronger, braver and so much more. To say that Kurenai was very proud of Hinata would be an understatement. Her only regret was that she really did not have anything to do with Hinata's progress.
So Kurenai had a decent idea of what to do for her team's genin test, when she had fought her way through several Jounins to get the two genin she felt could form a strong team alongside Hinata.
First a tracking mission where they simply had to locate her. The test had gone exactly as she had predicted and they really did not have any difficulties in working together, utilizing each of their strengths at maximum potential. Kiba and Akamaru using their nose, Hinata using the byakugan and Shino who planted Kikaichu on her.
Then she wanted to test them for individual fighting abilities so she could get a good reading on everything not mentioned in their files. Shino and Kiba displayed the abilities written in their file, there hadn't been much misinformation on that front.
But Hinata.
Hinata had pushed Kurenai in their spar. Her taijutsu was easily Chunin level and if Kuanai hadn't taken all those extra courses in taijutsu before being promoted to special Jounin then a girl who was fresh out of the academy would definitely had beaten her. Hinata was from one of the clans with the strongest taijutsu in the village but Kurenai had admittedly - to her shame - underestimated the girl.
It also displayed why Kurenai was chosen to be Hinata's body guard and not a Hyuuga. The Hyuuga clan, with their nintaijutsu and byakugan were the worst match she could come up against. The byakugan would see though all her genjutsus and the gentle fist would render her taijutsu useless.
So if she ever tried to go rouge, there would be nothing for her to do because she would be useless in a fight against the clan.
Kurenai's abilities were also complementing abilities with the clans way of fighting, because she used genjutsu which covered the long range that gentle fist users did not have.
The whole team passed the test of course.
She was happy with her team. Two of its members did need some catching up to the girl of the team though. But that was an easy fix, and the reason why there were teams, was to cover each other's weaknesses.
Hiashi-sama actually seemed proud when Kurenai informed him of his daughter's passing to genin.
It was a good day for both Kurenai and her team.
Author's note: rewrite complete
Some probably noticed that this chapter is very late compared to what I usually do. that's because I've had to rewrite chap 11 and 12 because I wrote the first version while being consumed by a writer's blog. this will hopefully not happen again for a long while. -I also changed the summary again.
This story has officially reached over 100 followers. I never actually believed that so many people would actually want to read my writing. So many thanks to everyone who has followed and favourited this story, every follow, review and favourite motivate me to write more.
(Warning, mini rant incoming)
There's something that always bugged me about the way shinobi are trained in Naruto. It honestly seems like becoming a Jounin isn't hard because of the level of difference between Jounin and Chunin, but because after becoming Chunin there's really two ways to rank up. The Chunin has to become an ANBU or if they're lucky, the Jounin sensei will help them become stronger. Kurenai was around 27-28 years old before becoming a Jounin while we see others being at Jounin level of fighting abilities before leaving their teens. (Mental capacity is a whole other story, so I'm not going to go into that stuff)
It seems that once you become a Chunin then that's it, no more help, it's either become better on your own or die. But there isn't shown any way for those without shinobi parents to progress after Chunin unless the Jounin teacher continues to guide them. That's a major issue in my opinion. It's like saying that you have to learn how to become, let's say a scientist without any help. That means that there's no one to help fix mistakes, give guidance and so on.
But that's pretty much impossible. So unless you're a supergenius, in ANBU, has an apprenticeship or have a teacher who's willing to continue teaching, then it's cannon fodder time forever.
If there was some kind of teachings to become Jonin in the series that I missed, then that just means that pretty much everyone in Naruto's generation are superginuses with fighting etc. Because then it would be impossible for them to be more advanced in fighting abilities than people twice or thrice their age. (Unless you're a main character) This has already become longer than I thought so I'm going to stop here, but I think you people get what I'm saying.
Constructive criticism is always appreciated.
- Kenjo Catze
Review answer time thing:
Not-Gonna-Update: yes, Dalek!Sasuke is very annoying. XD (your username is still awesome btw)
DarkDusk27, Sophiebybophie and JackFrost14: thanks for the reviews!
4everfictional: thanks for all the comments, they helped me get out of my long writers block.
BirdBoss: wow, thanks for all your thoughts about my story. It's always good to be told what you can do better, and don't be afraid to sound a bit harsh, I appreciate all criticism.
I also Googled what 'Deus ex machina' was so I knew what you meant in the chapter 6 review. Chakra poisoning is actually mentioned by Sasuke, or was it Kabuto? In chapter 4. Sasuke got the Sharingan in training with Rukia. I try my hardest to not just shove things into the story that does not have any background, so I hope that answered some of the questions you had. :D